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Rachelle Delaney was born in Edmonton and came to live in Vancouver. She has worked as a freelance writer, editor and book reviewer for Canadian magazines and newspapers. The Ship of Lost Souls was her first novel and won the Canadian Author's Association's Emerging Writer Award and was a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Award and the BC Red Cedar Award.
The Metro Dogs of Moscow was a CLA Book of the Year Honour Book; and also a finalist for the Silver Birch Award, Red Cedar Award, CCBC John Spray Mystery Award, and Rocky Mountain Book Award, among others.
The Circus Dogs of Prague was a finalist for the 2017 Pacific Northwest Library Association's Young Reader's Choice Award and the 2015 Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children.
The Bonaventure Adventures was a winner of the 2019 Chocolate Lily Award; and a finalist for the 2018/19 Diamond Willow Award and the 2019 Hackmatack Award.
Clara Voyant was a finalist for the Red Cedar Award, Chocolate Lily Award, Diamond Willow Award, and the Joan Betty Stutchner Oy Vey! Award for Funniest Children's Book.
Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster was a Silver Birch Honour Book and was shortlisted for several other awards including the Crime Writers of Canada Best Juvenile Crime Book.
BOOKS:
The Ship of Lost Souls (HarperCollins, 2009)
The Guardians of Island X (The Ship of Lost Souls series) (Grosset & Dunlap, 2012) 9780448457796
The Hunt for the Panther (The Ship of Lost Souls series) (Grosset & Dunlap, 2013) 978-0448457819
The Metro Dogs of Moscow (Puffin, 2013) $12.99 978-0-14-318414-0
The Circus Dogs of Prague (Puffin Canada, 2014) $12.99 978-0143184164
The Bonaventure Adventures (Puffin Canada, 2017) $19.99 978-0143198505
Clara Voyant (Puffin, 2018) $19.99 978-0143198536
Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster (Puffin, 2021) $21.99 978-0735269279
The Big Sting (Tundra, 2023) $22.99 9780735269309
[BCBW 2023]
The Big Sting by Rachelle Delaney (Tundra) Ages 8 – 12
Review by Heidi Greco
Eleven going on twelve-year-old Leo and his nine-year-old sister, Lizzie, are less than thrilled when their parents tell them they’ll be leaving their condo in Toronto for a visit to their grandfather, who lives off BC’s coast on Heron Island. Recognizable as a stand-in for several of our Gulf Islands, the fictional Heron Island is full of back-to-the-land types, and—shocking as it proves to be for Leo—their grandfather’s home turns out to be a place that doesn’t have any internet connection. Considering that both kids are reliant on Wi-Fi for games and communications, the visit looks as though it could be quite a challenge for them. It doesn’t help that their grandfather seems like such a grumpy person.
On the first morning of their stay, Leo wakes to the sound of a “grumble-huff” and wonders whether it’s an animal or a groaning from within the walls of the nearly hundred-year-old house they’re in. Then, when the sound is accompanied by stomping sounds, Leo concludes that it “could only mean one thing: the grumble-huffing animal was Grandpa himself. Because Grandpa didn’t walk. He stomped.” Of course, as things turn out, we learn that their grandfather has his reasons for this facade.
The brother-and-sister duo have barely landed on the island when their parents decide to leave for greener pastures—in their case, a spa at nearby Porpoise Island. This means the kids will be left behind and will have to learn how to get along with Grandpa.
In some ways, it’s a blessing. Not only does it nudge the kids into getting to know their grandfather better, it frees them of the pigeon holes their between-jobs, tech-professional dad has placed them in. Thanks to a personality-predictive website, he’s determined that Lizzie is an Adventurer, while Leo feels stuck in the role given him: Auditor. He can’t get very excited by thoughts of spending his life looking over people’s taxes. Yet we get to see that it’s true: Leo is not much of an Adventurer as even the ride on the ferry makes him nervous. During the hour-long trip, Leo tries “not to think about the deep, dark water churning beneath them … he had once spent several weeks exploring the ocean in a game called Neptune 3: The Deepest Dive, so he knew a thing or two about how incredibly dark and unbearably cold it was down there.”
Lizzie makes friends with a barn cat while Leo goes through near withdrawal from not being able to access the online games he’s accustomed to playing every day. But then, nearly as soon as the parents depart, a crime hits Heron Island: a stack of bee hives, once the pride of their departed grandmother, disappears during the night. Suddenly the kids find a cause: now they can be detectives!
When a group of apparently well-meaning older friends who call themselves the “Bumblers” arrive, the search party gets serious. The biggest annoyance this crew presents is their overly enthusiastic use of puns, which get “un-bee-lievably” overdone as they discuss ways to look into the “buzz-iness” of the missing hives.
After exploring the homes of several suspects, things get even more complicated as the search broadens. This results in Grandpa and the kids (and Lizzie’s kitten, aptly named Mayhem) needing to go to Porpoise Island themselves.
But after plenty of “bumbling” around, matters get resolved, with a culprit and a motive finally discovered, due in part to two very clever kids who have come to appreciate each other better than before, but who’ve also managed to mellow out Grandpa. Leo even learns that he might not be destined to live such a dull-sounding life as his “Auditor” profile had promised.
For any parent who wishes they could get their child to spend less time in front of a screen, this book could well provide a welcome distraction—but be warned, a number of the facts that help the children solve the mystery are details they’ve gleaned from the games they’ve played and sites they’ve visited online. Many bits of information about bees and beekeeping, as well as details about the traits and habits of cats, get slipped in among events—yet this fast-paced story never feels preachy. Although aimed at middle-grade readers, Vancouverite Rachelle Delaney has written a book that manages to be informative for almost anyone while also being rollicking good fun. 9780735269309
Heidi Greco once spent a memorable holiday on the real Heron Island, which is situated along the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
[BCBW 2023]
The Metro Dogs of Moscow was a CLA Book of the Year Honour Book; and also a finalist for the Silver Birch Award, Red Cedar Award, CCBC John Spray Mystery Award, and Rocky Mountain Book Award, among others.
The Circus Dogs of Prague was a finalist for the 2017 Pacific Northwest Library Association's Young Reader's Choice Award and the 2015 Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children.
The Bonaventure Adventures was a winner of the 2019 Chocolate Lily Award; and a finalist for the 2018/19 Diamond Willow Award and the 2019 Hackmatack Award.
Clara Voyant was a finalist for the Red Cedar Award, Chocolate Lily Award, Diamond Willow Award, and the Joan Betty Stutchner Oy Vey! Award for Funniest Children's Book.
Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster was a Silver Birch Honour Book and was shortlisted for several other awards including the Crime Writers of Canada Best Juvenile Crime Book.
BOOKS:
The Ship of Lost Souls (HarperCollins, 2009)
The Guardians of Island X (The Ship of Lost Souls series) (Grosset & Dunlap, 2012) 9780448457796
The Hunt for the Panther (The Ship of Lost Souls series) (Grosset & Dunlap, 2013) 978-0448457819
The Metro Dogs of Moscow (Puffin, 2013) $12.99 978-0-14-318414-0
The Circus Dogs of Prague (Puffin Canada, 2014) $12.99 978-0143184164
The Bonaventure Adventures (Puffin Canada, 2017) $19.99 978-0143198505
Clara Voyant (Puffin, 2018) $19.99 978-0143198536
Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster (Puffin, 2021) $21.99 978-0735269279
The Big Sting (Tundra, 2023) $22.99 9780735269309
[BCBW 2023]
The Big Sting by Rachelle Delaney (Tundra) Ages 8 – 12
Review by Heidi Greco
Eleven going on twelve-year-old Leo and his nine-year-old sister, Lizzie, are less than thrilled when their parents tell them they’ll be leaving their condo in Toronto for a visit to their grandfather, who lives off BC’s coast on Heron Island. Recognizable as a stand-in for several of our Gulf Islands, the fictional Heron Island is full of back-to-the-land types, and—shocking as it proves to be for Leo—their grandfather’s home turns out to be a place that doesn’t have any internet connection. Considering that both kids are reliant on Wi-Fi for games and communications, the visit looks as though it could be quite a challenge for them. It doesn’t help that their grandfather seems like such a grumpy person.
On the first morning of their stay, Leo wakes to the sound of a “grumble-huff” and wonders whether it’s an animal or a groaning from within the walls of the nearly hundred-year-old house they’re in. Then, when the sound is accompanied by stomping sounds, Leo concludes that it “could only mean one thing: the grumble-huffing animal was Grandpa himself. Because Grandpa didn’t walk. He stomped.” Of course, as things turn out, we learn that their grandfather has his reasons for this facade.
The brother-and-sister duo have barely landed on the island when their parents decide to leave for greener pastures—in their case, a spa at nearby Porpoise Island. This means the kids will be left behind and will have to learn how to get along with Grandpa.
In some ways, it’s a blessing. Not only does it nudge the kids into getting to know their grandfather better, it frees them of the pigeon holes their between-jobs, tech-professional dad has placed them in. Thanks to a personality-predictive website, he’s determined that Lizzie is an Adventurer, while Leo feels stuck in the role given him: Auditor. He can’t get very excited by thoughts of spending his life looking over people’s taxes. Yet we get to see that it’s true: Leo is not much of an Adventurer as even the ride on the ferry makes him nervous. During the hour-long trip, Leo tries “not to think about the deep, dark water churning beneath them … he had once spent several weeks exploring the ocean in a game called Neptune 3: The Deepest Dive, so he knew a thing or two about how incredibly dark and unbearably cold it was down there.”
Lizzie makes friends with a barn cat while Leo goes through near withdrawal from not being able to access the online games he’s accustomed to playing every day. But then, nearly as soon as the parents depart, a crime hits Heron Island: a stack of bee hives, once the pride of their departed grandmother, disappears during the night. Suddenly the kids find a cause: now they can be detectives!
When a group of apparently well-meaning older friends who call themselves the “Bumblers” arrive, the search party gets serious. The biggest annoyance this crew presents is their overly enthusiastic use of puns, which get “un-bee-lievably” overdone as they discuss ways to look into the “buzz-iness” of the missing hives.
After exploring the homes of several suspects, things get even more complicated as the search broadens. This results in Grandpa and the kids (and Lizzie’s kitten, aptly named Mayhem) needing to go to Porpoise Island themselves.
But after plenty of “bumbling” around, matters get resolved, with a culprit and a motive finally discovered, due in part to two very clever kids who have come to appreciate each other better than before, but who’ve also managed to mellow out Grandpa. Leo even learns that he might not be destined to live such a dull-sounding life as his “Auditor” profile had promised.
For any parent who wishes they could get their child to spend less time in front of a screen, this book could well provide a welcome distraction—but be warned, a number of the facts that help the children solve the mystery are details they’ve gleaned from the games they’ve played and sites they’ve visited online. Many bits of information about bees and beekeeping, as well as details about the traits and habits of cats, get slipped in among events—yet this fast-paced story never feels preachy. Although aimed at middle-grade readers, Vancouverite Rachelle Delaney has written a book that manages to be informative for almost anyone while also being rollicking good fun. 9780735269309
Heidi Greco once spent a memorable holiday on the real Heron Island, which is situated along the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
[BCBW 2023]
Articles: 1 Article for this author
Nominated for The Ship of Lost Souls
BC Book Prizes (2010)
Legend has it there's a treasure in the Islands. Everyone's after it, including Jem Fitzgerald and his explorer uncle, Finn, the Islanders, and pirates. Even the infamous crew known as the Lost Souls - rumoured to be ghosts - has set their spyglasses on it. Only Uncle Finn holds the map to the treasure but when he's kidnapped by the pirates, he quickly hands off the precious map to Jem, who isis rescued by the Lost Souls. It's the fright of his life until he discovers that the so-called ghosts are actually children, led by the daring young captain Scarlet McCray! But can Scarlet convince Jem to give up the map? Can she quiet the mutinous rumblings of her crew or will the reign of the Lost Souls end with her? Rachelle Delaney has received the Grant MacEwan Young Writers' Scolarship, the Larry Turner Award and the Bissenden Scholarship for creative writing. She lives in Vancouver.
BC Book Prizes catalogue
